Itching Ears

the verses to which I should like to draw your attention our verses 3 and 4 of 2 Timothy 4:2 Timothy four and verse three and four read for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths Father we pray that as we turn to the Bible that you will open our eyes and turn to as understanding in our minds and faith and trust accomplish your purpose as we pray for Jesus sake amen a couple of months ago now I received a call from my doctor's office informing me in a kindly manner that my doctor would no longer prescribe for me what I use as a daily medication if I failed for the third year in a row to show up for my annual physical so I decided I'll get a different doctor one who will let me come when I want and enjoy any kind of diet I choose and pretty well just please myself well of course I didn't do that I very quickly made an appointment and my physical will come up towards the end of February I realized that he had my best interest in heart it would be absolute foolishness on my part perhaps even life-threatening on my part to take the sound advice that was represented in that call in that word and said it assigned I think all of us would concur with that and to the extent that we understand that on a physical level then it ought not to be difficult for us to realize just how far more significant that reality is when it comes to the spiritual realm when Paul writes to Timothy in his first letter he encourages in relationship not only to his own physical well-being but also to his spiritual health and in the seventh verse of chapter 4 paraphrase by JB Phillips he says to Timothy physical fitness has a certain value but spiritual fitness is essential both for this life and for the life to come and therefore if one were to be prepared to play fast and loose with our own physical frames surely we would recognize the solemnity that is involved in thinking about the fact that we have a soul that is eternal in fact the only part of our existence that will pass into eternity is the very essence of who we are our souls and that's why the charge that Paul gave to Timothy which we noted last time came across with such solemnity I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus the one who's going to judge the living and the dead in relationship to the fact that he's going to appear and he's going to consummate his kingdom it's all of that that is wrapped up because as we saw the minister of God looks over the lives entrusted to his care as caring for their souls as someone who must give an account I don't think we really give very much thought to our souls do we in somebody sent me a letter this week one of my friends in my environment admire very much he's an older man and and he was quoting to me when the fact that people ask him now in his 80s how are you and and he said that he's been reading the Puritans and he realized that the Puritans answered that in terms of their souls and they and and so they would say you know physically I may be actually wasting away or deteriorating but in relationship with my soul it is it is well with my soul I think we tend to think of it the wrong way around don't we believing some are another that the things that are seen are real and the things that are unseen are some how unreal when I point if I'd the Bible reverses it and says the things that we can see are transient they're ephemeral and the things that we can't see are the things that are eternal now it was in light of those verities that he had given him this charge the solemn charge and a simple charge just a phrase preach the word preach the word Christopher Ashe whom we admire and read and have benefited from in his visits in his book the priority of preaching makes the point that preaching preaching is culturally neutral its culturally neutral in other words it's not tied to any particular dimension of culture or life you don't have to have been to a certain College or you don't have to be equipped with a certain mental faculty you don't have to have a peculiar interest in investigative study in order to listen to preaching that the that the authoritative teaching of an individual from the Bible is something that everybody can do and every culture knows what it is and that actually is different from for example interactive Bible study because an interactive Bible study it isn't culturally neutral you have to possess either interest or capacity or whatever it might be in order to engage in that activity and not everybody finds it as easy to do there are actually some studies in the UK where the students of for example Oxford and Cambridge in combining in interactive Bible study with students from lesser universities in the Oxbridge area have discovered that the overall in presence of the Oxford students silenced the students from the inferior universities and from the technical colleges but the same students could sit together under the authoritative teaching of the Bible because it's culturally neutral demands nothing of them except two years and a responsive heart now I'll leave you to think these things out I thought it was important simply to make this point that regular expose Ettore preaching of the Bible is the staple diet of a healthy church is a staple diet of a healthy church I guarantee you I can take you anywhere in the world and if we find health in the church whatever nation whatever city in the world I guarantee you you will find the faithful teaching of the Bible I take you back to my own country and we can go from close building to close building to open building to open building and the thing that has the building open and the people in it is directly related to the teaching of the Bible somebody gave me some books this morning for which I am very very thankful and included in that there was a quote that I didn't know from one of my Scottish forebears and the quote is this no teacher must find it a trouble to go over and over again the great basics of the Christian faith for that is the way to ensure the safety of the hearers I find that very helpful now why is this charge then so important well he tells us in verses 3 & 4 I have given you a charge that you need to heed and now let me tell you he says of a challenge that you're going to face this is not some remote future for Timothy this is something that he has already identified in his first letter and now in his second and he's making aware making Timothy aware of what he has previously taught him there have been those he says in chapter 2 whose influence in the church was absolutely useless they were involved in irreverent babble their babble led people into ungodliness their teaching spread like sepsis from a wound it was like gangrene going through a body absolutely dreadful and and at it's very basis was the fact that these individuals had swerved from the truth they'd swerved from the truth they're no longer holding the line in relationship to orthodoxy and now he's warning Timothy and preparing Timothy for the fact that when he preaches as he's going to do now because Paul is going to leave him he reads to realize that he's not simply going to be faced with those whose minds may wander while he's teaching but they will actually physically depart from him he should anticipate that they will give up his theology in search of mythology you have the text in front of you you can look at it and see whether that's an apt summary of what he's saying they will depart from the truth and they will embrace error now here's the thing to notice this is not a diatribe about the surrounding culture he's talking about the church he's talking about the people in the church the people who are sitting in a congregation such as this this morning 2015 who may find within themselves the seeds of declension and of departure who find themselves so pressed upon by the thought forms and worldviews that are essentially secular that if one is not careful one may find ourselves completely undermined as a result of that unless holding firmly to the truth we've been taught now it's straightforward I hardly needs any kind of outline it does it the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching there's nothing hard to understand about that is it they just won't put up with it now we've noticed this word sound in the past if you turn by just one page you'll see that in verse 13 of chapter one he had urged Timothy to follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me it simply means healthy as opposed to unhealthy hear these these are the words that will find the body growing in its health and in its usefulness he he had mentioned it if you turn back one other page to chapter six of our first Timothy 1 he had said to him there teach and urge these things first Timothy 6 3 if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with here's the adjective again with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness he's puffed up with conceit he understands nothing he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce Envy dissension slander evil suspicions constant friction among people who are depraved in their minds deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is means of gaining that's quite asceticism and it what does it all stem from it stems from the fact that they do not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ in other words they have deviated now every so often when you use that GPS thing depending on how good your GPS is the lady goes crazy on you if you start if you start to disobey her you know she says again get off in 300 feet I said I don't want to get off in 300 feet I know I know the journey better than she does so I go past her then she either says make a u-turn and your earliest convenience and no I don't want I talk to her house in the car I said no I'm not going to do that and then and then you know how it goes from there well you see these people are here about to drive past the exit and the Word of God says no don't do that and they speak back they say no no I want to do that I like it better this way and there's a direct correlation you will notice between teaching a different doctrine and living a different lifestyle if you do if they do not hold to the different doctrine if they don't hold to the true doctrine of Jesus but an embrace a different doctrine then it will not be a doctrine other chords with godliness you see the people the people to whom Timothy is ministering were confused at least on two fronts they were morally confused and they were doctrinally confused they were confused about what they really ought to believe and therefore they were confused about how they really ought to behave because our belief in our behavior are inter wolf Paul makes that point for Timothy doesn't he first Timothy again for says watch your life and your doctrine closely in this his final letter he's able to say to Timothy and you know about my life you know not only what I said but you also know my life there is a direct relationship between a deviation from the truth and that's impact then in the moral consensus of a church or of individual lives people are not going to be tuning in says Paul to Timothy to the kind of teaching which makes them healthy and useful instead you will discover that they have itchy ears and their ears are tuned not too serious but too curious some of you have the serious on your on your car as well now well this is this they wouldn't be tuned in the Sirius radio they'll be tuned in the curious radio because these are the kind of people who are always looking for something that's fascinating I'm always interested people use the word fascinating everything's fascinating really well if everything's fascinating nothing is fascinating so anyway there's a fascinating intriguing a speculative spicy you know all these kind of things there's some spicy theological insights they're just a rich aroma coming out from wherever it is and what do they do well they just try and find as many of these people to teach them as much of this as they possibly can that's the significance of this picture they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and the Greek is actually they will heat up for themselves teachers they'll get they'll just get more and more and more of them it's not that they just go for one new teacher they said Nora this one's good and that one's good and so on yeah I wonder did he couldn't have anticipated the Internet could he I mean he could have imagined Google bad enough in Ephesus there's a few people there they know teaching goodness gracious you ought to try it now I would say to Paul look at this because in a minute you can go you know in a nanosecond you can go and and and and and find teachers to accommodate every notion you've ever had in your life if you look hard enough you'll find somebody to tell you exactly what you want to hear that's why most people don't come for counsel to be counseled become in order to be told what they want to hear and if they don't hear what they want to hear then they go find somebody else who can tell them what they want to hear that's not being counseled that's just it's like the way we listen to that's not to actually consider things it's just to rearrange our prejudices and these people just keep this stuff up it fits with the notion that was so earlier of weak-willed women who are burdened down by all kinds of sins and led astray by various passions that's in Chapter three actually the variable root is the same between the two sections in the in the Greek New Testament so you see what the picture is see when people start believing in the truth of God's Word they usually don't believe nothing they just start to believe everything so they start to accommodate all kinds of notions and you notice the correlation here they will accumulate for themselves teachers who will accommodate their passions this is what I want to be oh well we can help you with that as opposed to well actually this is what the Bible says now dick Lucas who's a great favorite of all of us I think as sometimes since he's been here and probably he won't come back I'll have to wait to see him in heaven unless we go to London but when he's been with us in the past and especially in the early days he would draw for us he was very proud of his artwork and what and one of his great pieces of art is is a single line he would take just a marker on a whiteboard and he would just draw a line bisecting the board and then he would stand back and say what do you think of that and we would say well it's a very nice line and they say yes sir why it's a wonderful line and then we wait for his point and then he would draw an arrow above the line pointing up then he would draw an arrow below the line pointing down and he said here's the here's the thing fellas the line is the instruction of scripture unvarnished unfilled with the history of the church is the history of those who are going to say to the people the answer actually lies above the line which is usually some peculiar emphasis some Jesus Plus Bible Plus approach or the answer lies below the line which is the essence of liberal scholarship and the great temptation and the story of church history is a story of those who have deviated from the line and so you would say to us as younger man hold the line whatever else you do do not succumb to the temptation to go below it into liberalism do not succumb to the temptation to go above it into fanaticism just hold the line now Paul says to Timothy here's your problem these people that you're going to be preaching to they're not going to hold the line they're going to accumulate for themselves teachers who will consider it a per a privilege to let them have whatever it is they want now Timothy was in the first century we're in the 21st century Isaiah was what six or seven centuries BC and what do you discover when you read the Bible when you read church history that this is not a peculiar phenomenon at least not peculiar to first century Ephesus let me give you an illustration from the Old Testament from the prophecy of Isaiah if you'd like to turn to it is Isaiah chapter 30 and the context is that the people of God have rejected the instruction of the prophet of God namely Isaiah and the reason that they have rejected His Word is not because of any lack of clarity on his part but actually he's just being a little bit too clear it said - it's too easy to understand what he has to say and too difficult to accept what he has to say they didn't actually want him to stop preaching they just wanted him to preach according to their passions they just wanted him to preach in a manner that they would be able to live with wouldn't alter anything at all so look at it as it's recorded for us verse 9 Isaiah 30 they are a rebellious people lying children children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord now they can't understand is that they don't want to hear they say to the seers do not see and to the prophets do not prophesy to us what is right speak to us smooth things prophesy illusions leave the way turn aside from the path let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel well that's pretty straightforward isn't it tell us smooth things I had I would not like that as an adjective to describe myself or anyone of my pastoral team we may be smooth in terms of the absence of facial hair but that's as smooth as I think we would like to be I'm not sure I find it as a plus unless of course you're you're you finished furniture or something that would be that would be fine but now the terminology between the centuries before Jesus and now here in the first century is the same isn't it in Isaiah they turn aside from the path and in Timothy they turn away from listening to the truth so in other words he's describing a certain kind of group of people that he's going to encounter as he operates now remember when he took his leave from the Ephesian elders Acts chapter 20 he said to them from among your own group will come people who draw away people after them they'll teach all kinds of things it'll be like they're like wolves emerging in them in the middle of sheep and now here's Timothy and he's confronted by this very thing the congregation's then selecting their pastors provided their pastors will accommodate their passions tell them what they want to hear they're far more interested in novelty than they're interested in orthodoxy you say well the soul sheeps are very far away really I don't think so I think it seems very very close especially living as we do in Cleveland or in the Greater Cleveland area because we have the dubious distinction of being the location for the headquarters of the most liberal the denomination in the entire United States namely the United Church of Christ let us say that we controversial or to be unkind in any way I just I just I could I can quote to you from their own materials and I'm sure they would be happy to quote from mine and disdain them therefore I'd be happy to let you know that when they say what they say what they're saying you need to understand their marketing slogan at the present time is as you've seen it driving around God is still speaking well you say well that's fair enough isn't it isn't that what you're saying didn't you pray this morning as we turn to the Bible speak Lord so presumably he's still speaking isn't that just what they're saying no it's no what they're saying what they're saying is that God is speaking beyond what he is said in the Bible and that he's actually decided to contradict himself what they mean by this quotes they're still speaking God that the United Church of Christ has heard has told them something new okay now we have just gone below the line yes apparently he's told them something new about sexuality that's why they're happy to marry men to men and women to women he's told them something new about the sufficiency of the Bible that's why they're happy to set it aside at a moment's notice and actually the tagline for their marketing slogan is never place a period where God has placed a comma whoa and where did that come from that actually kids remember George burns with a cigar remember good night Gracie that's her line Gracie burns came up with that line in another context entirely but they said well this this is perfect never place a full-stop where God has placed a comma you read your Bible and you say to yourself let's read the context of 2 Timothy 4 and relationship to that kind of thing and what you define you find as you trace the history of the UCC which goes only into the 50s it's an amalgamation of a variety of congregations that have all given up on the Bible they've all decided no we don't have to say what the Bible says we don't have to do what the Bible says we believe that God is saying something entirely differently from what he said no I don't know where you are this morning in your thinking but I'm standing with Martin Luther what more can he say them to you he has said to you unto Jesus for refuge' fled in other words he has given to us his final statement in the word we don't worship the word we don't worship the Bible we don't believe as the UCC Dogma says that God has been trapped inside a lie a leather-bound Edition that's the way they put it you feel sorry for these people who believe that God is trapped within his book he's not trapped within his book but every deviation from his book is either one that takes us above the line or below the line turning people away from biblical revelation and turning them in to speculation see these people are in search of a spirituality that is disconnected from biblical truth that's really the issue of it every time there's hardly a week passes if you move in the community at all if you let it be known that you have any interest in in spiritual or religious things you will find somebody who will say to you well I'm a very spiritual person but of course I have no time for the Bible at all and then we have to talk with that we let it unpack that why is that what does that mean and so on so here comes the Prophet he speaks the Word of God said we don't want to have the Word of God tell us smooth things here is the Word of God that has been left by the Apostles in his doctrine that is now inscripturated in the New Testament this is what it says about the nature of man this is what it says about the doctrine of creation read for example if you're doing more in McShane read Genesis the beginning of Genesis as we were reading earlier in the week where were we so Genesis Genesis 9 where it was I said yeah I just struck me so forcibly and God bless no on sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth listen to this the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens upon everything that creeps on the ground at all the fish of the sea into your hand they are delivered that's the doctrine of creation because man is made in the image of God man is not a turbocharged monkey man is not fighting for his existence alongside the deer they're not allowed to eat my hostas Genesis 9 says so but if your view of the world says your existence has to fight for itself and that you can't tell your neighbor to take their dog on a long vacation and to somewhere far away because because the dog is only doing what dogs do yeah but dogs are supposed to do what we tell them to do now do you want a doctrine of human speculation or do you want a doctrine of creation I mean it's let's just where it is you could you have to work it out somehow spiritual engagement disconnected from biblical truth Jeremiah says the same thing listen to this an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land whoa what's that the prophets prophesied falsely the priests rule at their discretion listen and my people love to have it so that's the problem that's the problem you see the problem ultimately is not a prophets or the priests it's the people that's why I'm working so hard to teach you these things so that after my departure you will also be able to hold to these things so that the children that are in our nursery this morning will will rise up and they will hold to these things because I always tell you you're only a few years away from this place becoming a carpet sill room and it would become that as a result of a declension from the truth either going above it or going below it you say well that's a that's a there's a little extreme is it not I don't think it is because if you think about it the biblical assessment of man what the Bible says about us as men and women is not naturally appealing you have you want to appeal to people in the sugar and Valley you probably shouldn't tell them what the Bible says about them because what the Bible says about us all as this one I'm sinful - I'm guilty three I'm responsible and four I'm lost have a great day see it doesn't work it doesn't work you can't do that you can't do that if you want to do have a great day you're gonna have to say we are not really sinful you just you know a few things happen to you and you're after all you're a combination of you know molecular structural and psychological and moral and balance no no your sinful your sinful and your guilty and you can't fix it and you're responsible for it you can't blame it on your grandmother and you're lost you want to make it really clear bring to mind now your favorite grandchild your newest one the tiny one with the big eyes and the wriggling and everything that goes along with it think of all of their potential think of all of their capacity bring them before your mind's eye sit them on a stool in front of you and say to yourself this little girl is sinful guilty responsible and lost and she needs a savior she needs a savior more than she needs swimming lessons she needs a savior more than she's in track she needs a Savior more than she goes to the best university in America all those things may be coming and going but the fact is she needs a Savior that's at the very heart of things that's why I say to you that the biblical statement of the nature of man the view of the world broken there's amazing headline this morning in the BBC I wrote it down a broken program for a broken people is describing the circumstances that is there so devastating in terms of the social implications of trafficking and and and all manner of things and and the and the current the journalist says this is a broken program for a broken people well is there anybody can fix it yeah but it's gonna be you you're not gonna like the way it gets faced come back to the doctor yeah and the doctor says it's not a problem you have congestive heart failure but I didn't want to tell you that so I just told you you got a little bit of a little Bronco thing doesn't matter have a great afternoon I don't want to know that doctor I'm telling me lies tell me lies tell me sweet little lies don't speak to me smoothly speak to me straightforwardly my life depends on it my eternal destiny depends on it now if you alerted me to the Wall Street Journal article and with this I will stop but if you alerted me to the Wall Street Journal article of a few days ago thinking you were the only one I'm sorry to disappoint you but I do agree I appreciate so many of you thinking of me only one brought me the hard copy but that's fine and and and the the article in The Wall Street you remember began Europe's empty churches go on sale right and it was based the greater part of the article had to do with the Netherlands and the the closing of the churches in Europe reflecting a rapid weakening of faith in Europe that's a long article I'm not gonna quote from it much except I as you would understand I went looking for for the uke ke to see what they have to say the Church of England closest churches every year in Bristol England the former's in Paul's church has become the circle media circus training school there you go operators say the high ceilings are perfect for aerial equipment like trapeze it's a nil wind that blows nobody any good isn't it I mean look at that it's amazing you know interestingly we have a lady in our congregation whose parents left that church sent Paul's in Bristol England when it started to go below the line it started go below the line they said well we couldn't stay in here with this I said to her this morning when she identified it I said you know if they had not left you would not be here she said you're absolutely right see because ideas of consequences and in Edinburgh Scotland a Lutheran Church has become a Frankenstein themed bar featuring bubbling test-tubes lasers and a life-size Frankenstein's monster descending from the ceiling at midnight Scotland was known as the land of the book and Jason McDonald the supervisor of the pub says he's never heard any complaints about the the Frankenstein thing he says it's for one simple reason there are hundreds and hundreds of old churches and no one going to them some scholars think Americans future will approach Europe's and I think the scholars are absolutely right apart from a great move of the Spirit of God like the 18th century await what you've seen when you've gone on your vacation so Europe has given you a little foretaste before your children are your grandchildren are gonna live within this nation that's why it's so crucially important to heed the charge and to take up the challenge see when we come back next time we realize that what what Paul is going to say to Timothy is not so throw in the towel Timothy you know you try and accommodate yourself no he's gonna say the harder it gets the tougher it is the harder you've got to go at it that's why I told them earlier when you feel like it when you don't feel like it when the response is strong when the response is pure you've got to keep going do you realize how important it is to pray for young seminarians to pray for pastors to pray for each other to pray that that in the that in the teaching to our children that there's a fastidious commitment to orthodoxy there's no fudging and blurring of the lines so that these little ones may grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord well we began this morning with a prayer and I'd like us to end with the concluding part of that prayer and it will appear on the screen for you and we can say it together the prayer began this morning with our acknowledgement that we come before God as foolish sheep inclined to wander so let's stay together the concluding part of the prayer gracious father help us to see where the path of blessing lies and give us hearts that are eager to travel that path while we live in a fallen world with sinful hearts we will always be prone to wander thank you for holding fast to us for we cannot hold on to you give us strong appetites for spiritual food the Word of God and the body and blood of our precious Savior grant us unshakable confidence in the death and life of Jesus until his wounds cleanse our guilt and give us great joy make us humble followers instead of prideful leaders so that we can find safety and delight in walking with you in Jesus name we pray

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 60,028

Rating: 4.8956833 out of 5

Keywords: Alistair Begg, Jesus Christ, Gospel, False Teaching, Preaching, Church Leadership

Id: ED7x6_fgUt8

Length: 37min 32sec (2252 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 12 2015